Initiative offers helping hand in overcoming school challenges

AMMAN — Seeking to restore faith in schools, Sonbola initiative has executed “successful” projects in 100 public schools in Jordan and is targetting 300 other schools in its second phase, according to the initiative’s director. 

“A country’s development begins with the development of its schools,” Arafat Awad told The Jordan Times on Tuesday, noting that the initiative targets public schools in the northern, central and southern regions of the Kingdom. 

He added that Sonbola, which included 93 girls’ and 10 boys’ schools in its first phase, is supported by the Al Hussein Fund for Excellence, which has been supporting and funding ideas and projects since 1999. 

The initiative urges teachers and students to write down the challenges they face and come up with innovative ideas to overcome them, the director said.

Launched by Aljude Organisation in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Sonbola provides each project with JD100 to execute the ideas, Awad said.

He added that the local community has also contributed to the projects by providing support to their neighbouring schools, which has encouraged social solidarity.

To express its gratitude, the organisation will celebrate and honour the teachers with the best 40 projects on November 17, the director said. 

Awad added that Sonbola is “a leading business virus”, spreading positive effects on students, teachers, schools and the local community.

For his part, Aljude Director General Maher Kaddoura said that the organisation aims at reinforcing the idea of practical innovation to solve daily problems.

Sonbola’s persistence was “the way to its success”, the director general said, expressing his pride in the organisation’s accomplishments which are “drops in the ocean” of Jordan’s achievements.

“We should be writing our own stories with our accomplishments, rather than observing or criticising the challenges facing us along the way,” Kaddoura said.